From a war zone

We've been hosting a couple of colleagues from a twinned university in Kyiv at the law school in the last few weeks. Today I met one of them, who gifted me / the Law School these meaningful souvenirs from a war zone. The fridge magnet commemorates the Dream, the largest cargo aeroplane in the world, destroyed by the Russian invaders in the first days of the war. Yet, as my colleague said, the Russian invaders cannot deprive the Ukrainian people of their dreams of freedom. The bag is a well known image, which has appeared on Ukrainian stamps and doubtless in many other places. Giving the finger to the Russian invaders. The chocolates will be passed around the office when I return from Helsinki. It is hard to know exactly what to say to someone who has come to visit us directly from a war zone. She said that the visit was really important to her, and I think it's equally so for us.

We've been packing for our trip this evening, and, my goodness, it feels strange. We are well out of the habit of this. I will probably use approximately one third of the clothes I have stashed in the bags.